I Trust All My Players - Brendan Rodgers

Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers is confident his new arrivals will settle in quick despite the setback of a 1-0 Premier League loss to Aston Villa. Rodgers fielded six close-season signings in Saturday's defeat at Anfield but admitted his side's Champions League game against Ludogorets on Tuesday night influenced his selection.

Yet despite the defeat, with Raheem Sterling one of the players dropped to the bench, Rodgers believes his side can cope with the extra workload and insists all will have roles in the first team.


"We've got a big couple of months, a really exciting couple of months coming up. Looking at it, this [Aston Villa] was a game where I felt we could do that.

"If [Sterling] didn't have international football then it would have been a different case. He came on, he was bright. He's a big player for us.

"We've built a squad here so that I trust all the players. As a team and a squad we just didn't deliver. [Sterling] will certainly play on Tuesday night."

Home debutants Luzar Markovic, Adam Lallana and Mario Balotelli failed to make the difference against Villa as a front three but Rodgers pointed to the 3-0 win at Tottenham - Balotelli's debut - as evidence the new arrivals will click.

"We played against Tottenham and we were outstanding," he continued.

"The players that we've brought in are very good players. We're delighted with that. We just failed to open them up."